When making jam games one always has to make a leap of faith : you can't be sure about anything when trying out a new concept, and things can turn out badly for so many reasons : scope too big, unforeseen game design problem, gameplay actually boring... But that's what makes it thrilling when it works ! And for LD55, I'm definitely positive it did ! ! In Demonic Panic, you control a cultist summoning demons to protect him against the Sky Police, FBI-like priests. You leave a blood trail behind, that you use to circle around zones. When a shape is finished, everything inside it merges to spawn stronger and stronger demons. I'm so happy to see how a simple mechanic like this turned out way more subtle than expected : you can merge demons to get better ones, because they get more tanky, but in most cases having more smaller demons is better to kill enemies quickly. However they die quicker, so it's always a tradeoff. It's so interesting to see people try different strategies !

I think we have fulfilled the goal I have for every game I make : always having room to optimize for better strategies. What's great with that is that it gives a huge replay value with a very few sets of features. Basically in our game, the player just runs around dodging projectiles, but the pathing is extremely important for long term survival.

Try our game here if you like that kind of game ! I promise you won't be disappointed ! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/demonic-panic